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MOTD: Dynamo Kiev 1-3 Manchester City

By on February 24, 2016

Not too long ago, a peach of a goal off the boot of Yaya Toure would not have been a rare occurrence. He has ample power in his legs to curl spectacular long-range efforts into the back of the net, with a touch of delicacy and nonchalance, but alas, the key ingredient of fitness has been all too fleeting of late.

Today, however, he showed a glimpse of why he was once one of the best central midfielders in Europe, as he struck a fabulous late, curled effort to give Manchester City a 3-1 win over Dynamo Kiev.

The Sky Blues took a huge step into the Champions League Quarterfinals with this win in Ukraine, pointing to a wherewithal to progress into the Quarterfinal stage for the first time.

“The performance was good, with a lot of high pressing, 3-1 is a good result and we are happy with it,” said captain Vincent Kompany on BT Sport’s broadcast.

“We are going into the second leg with a fairly good chance to go through, which has not been the case before. We looked like a team that was hungry for success.”

Kompany’s return from injury (this was just his second match back since a two months on the sideline) has strengthened the English side’s backbone, effectively closing out the game just when Manuel Pellegrini’s men had allowed Kiev back into the game in a sloppy second half. The Sky Blues could have had more than three goals during a late surge, but Toure missed a late sitter. The win justified Pellegrini’s decision play a weakened side in the FA Cup gainst Chelsea last weekend and a vibrant performance from Raheem Sterling, David Silva, and Sergio Aguero up top supported City’s status as one of Europe’s best eight.

The Chilean manager moved Fernandinho out wide right to deploy Silva in the middle, a decision that payed off handsomely, with the Spaniard bagging a first half goal.

Aguero scored his sixteenth goal in his past seventeen Champions League starts as City got off to a roaring start, with Toure bringing down Silva’s far-post corner for the Argentine forward to smash home on the volley just fifteen minutes in.

Toure came close on thirty-five minutes, forcing Oleksandr Shovkovskiy into a good save down low to his left to stop a driven effort on the break. In the thirty-ninth minute, Silva doubled City’s lead, finishing Raheem Sterling’s low, far-post cross from the left on the overlap. Aguero had a chance to put the match to bed on the brink of the half, but uncharacteristically drilled a shot wide of the post from the left side of the box.

On the other side of the half, Kiev began to push their way back into the match, with Andriy Yamolenko sending a fierce dipping effort just wide of the post from the edge of the box. Vitaly Buyalsky pulled a goal back with a driven side-volley deflecting off of a City defender on its way into the back of the net and for a moment, City were looking shaky as Kiev surged forward.

“Maybe when it was 2-1 we had moments of doubt, but then we got the third goal,” said Pellegrini, per the BBC.

The visitors shed their growing pains in Europe as Toure closed out the game late on with a twenty-five yard curler shortly after he had headed a golden opportunity wide with all the space in the world six yards out from goal. And so, with a touch of class that City’s Champions League form has lacked in recent years, they’ve all but sealed their place in the Quarterfinals at the third time of trying.

Homepage photo credit: By Biser Todorov (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.